The Kitchen Saga Continues

Picture: Notice the new garden window and that it is counter height...

March 10, 2008, Monday. Cabinets that went in today were the corner upper and the corner lower and the one next to that. They also had to work on the vent pipe that went along the ceiling (in the soffit in the old kitchen). It has to be tucked in the upper floor rafters.

Ron and I went to a tile place that deals with Direct Buy, called Dahtile, and they had a very nice showroom. We knew about what we wanted because we talked to a designer at Direct Buy and showed her our picture of the kitchen brick wall and our granite. She directed us to a certain color of tile. So we were able to make up our minds pretty easily. We took our piece of granite to help match. We picked out a neutral beige tile with a brick colored decorative strip.

March 11, 2008, Tuesday. The carpenter, Glen, put in the stove top cabinet and the pull-out cabinet next to it (adjacent to the door to the hall). Then they also put in the 3 upper cabinets above the stove top and installed the microwave.. They also installed the side panels for the Sub Zero - for the built-in look - and the cabinet above it!

Busy day for us: I worked at Family History Room at ward building from 10-12; Dad met me there after his check up with the Urologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital and we got lunch at Baja Fresh; then I worked at the FHC in Essex from 1-4 - we have a librarian on vacation and a new couple that needed to be trained. Dad went to his art class. We met up at home and left at 6 PM to attend a Baltimore County zoning meeting. Someone on our street wanted to divide his 9 acres to 4 lots. Needless to say, the Felsteds and Glovers were not too happy. Both Dad and Connie spoke for their allotted 2 minutes against it. We got home at 11:30 PM.

March 12, 2008, Wednesday. The kitchen guy, Willie, worked on getting the wallboard all spackled and other little details.

I went to the FHC to work my normal shift. Dad stayed home and worked on painting the Family Room. We have been calling since Monday to get the Sub Zero moved from our garage to our kitchen. The company that sold it to us has NOT been returning our calls. I finally talked to a person today. She said she would look into it...

Picture: notice the rolling drawers and the wallboard used as a temporary countertop!

March 13, 2008, Thursday. Willie and Glen worked on putting the pull-out shelves in the pantry and the dividers in the part above it. Another worker put on all the knobs on the cabinets. Glen also started the crown molding. We had to run down to Home Depot to get one knob for the small cabinet next to the refrigerator. The normal knob would not fit in/on the top drawer. We also picked up a new door stop for the kitchen door, spray paint for the heat vents to match the new paint color and felt pads for all the legs of the furniture in the family room.

March 14, 2008, Friday. Another trip - this time to another tile store to make sure they did not have anything that we would like just as well and would be easier to get than ordering it. We did not see anything.

We finally heard from Kitchen Design Center - they would send some men out on Monday, March 17th from 7:30 - 9 AM. Our island could not be put in until the Sub Zero was put in place - so this has caused another delay...

Picture: The Sub Zero is huge and very heavy. It made little grooves in the pine floor, which Dad had to sand away!

March 17, 2008, Monday. Lots of work done on the kitchen today. The men came at 8 AM and moved the Sub Zero from the garage to the kitchen built-in place. They did NOT level it or install it (like I think they were supposed to do). Ron also paid them to move the old refrigerator to the basement in the food storage room. This meant that we had to clean out the old frig and refill it when it was in the basement.

Then the electrician showed up briefly - just to get the electricity to the Sub-Zero. However, we had him move two recessed lights so they would be centered to the cabinets they were supposed to be lighting. Now why didn't he think of that before? The kitchen plans were there....

The kitchen people worked on tops for the drawer/window seats; put the island cabinets in and the beadboard on the back facing the family room and some other stuff.

We made a list for more stuff for a trip to Home Depot. But mostly we worked on getting the furniture back into the family room. That included dusting and vacuuming everything! Every little crevice, crack, sides of the furniture. There was sanding dust everywhere - even though we put up plastic barriers. Oh my...

We also decided to change some picture placements. Dad wanted more of his art in the room. I have suggested that he paint a more patriotic picture which would blend in with the decor. He is thinking about it. At the moment we have the tugboat picture, the barn and silo picture in here. Two small pictures - our house and a European view - are hanging on the brick wall between the kitchen and family room. We still have Jacob in his Civil War uniform up and we are looking for a nice reproduction of the 45 star flag to put into the Peter Christian Spanish American War case.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008. The kitchen men did not come today, so that Dad could work on staining the kitchen floor. So we started out in the morning by trying to get the stuff out of the cracks inbetween the floor planks. Then I left to work at the FH Room and then go down to the FHC to work as a substitute again. Dad vacuumed the floor with the Shop Vac and the Oreck to make sure all the dust/sand was gone. Then he stained the floor. Unfortunately, once again, the first coat defined the imperfections from the original sanding. So in the evening he used the hand sander to fix those spots. Dad had a dental appointment and then he attended his art class in the afternoon.

After the FHC, I came home and crashed briefly. There was a Relief Society event at Church that I felt obliged to go to - Connie was singing and Carole Baker had a speaking part. It was a nice event. I had dinner there. Dad picked up some Roma's chicken on his way back from the art class.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008. At 8 AM, Glen, our major carpenter, came and uninstalled the temporary kitchen sink so that the granite man could make an accurate template. At 9:30 AM the granite man came and spent about 1.5 hours measuring, consulting and then making a cardboard template of the countertop sections (sink part with bump out into the window; stovetop part; top of one little cabinet next to the refrigerator; top of another little cabinet next to kitchen door). We will go down there tomorrow, Thursday, to show where on the granite slab we want all these pieces to be.

We really like this granite place. The first place we went was very confusing - construction going on, large carts with various pieces of granite everywhere and blocking the slabs so that we could not see much. This place was clean, we could see the workers polishing the edges; they moved some slabs for us to get a better view. And we have heard very good reports of their seaming and over-all competence. The one owner that we talked to was from Turkey and was a former insurance salesman! He was the one that came out today.

After he left Dad and I went to Home Depot and got some more cherry stain. One of the pints we got was clearly not the correct color! I went and got an allergy shot. I am behind again - my last shot was due March 4th! Dinner was chicken, potatoes, carrots baked in the oven and gravy was made in the old microwave (a first for that for me). The new one is not hooked up to the electricity yet...

Picture: The corner cabinet has a cherry plywood top - Omega sent wood for the top of these cabinets; but the odd shape needed for the top of the corner one was wider than what they sent. So Dad will have to stain that one to match the rest. We will have cushions made for them.

Picture: Notice the wonderful floor that Dad did!!!